The present invention relates to a tape recorder and, more particularly, to a tape recorder suitable for utilizing "soft-touch" operation switches.
Various types of control buttons of a mechanical tape recorder have recently been furnished with a soft-touch operation mechanism to control tape transport functions. The soft-touch operation is performed by moving movable members, such as a head chassis, into a predetermined position by a driving force of a motor, etc. without directly moving these members by an operation force of control buttons, thus decreasing the force required to depress the control buttons.
However, soft-touch operated buttons have not been highly developed as yet, and various problems remain unsolved. For example, a conventional soft-touch operation mechanism is large and involves a high power consumption, and has thus far been limited to only a large, high-quality tape deck. A strong demand exists for the development of a compact, lightweight soft-touch control mechanism with low power consumption which may be used for a battery-operated, portable, compact cassette tape recorder such as a cassette tape recorder with a radio. Furthermore, in addition to compactness, light weight, and low power consumption, a demand also exists for smooth operation of various types of movable members in a given sequence and provision of safeguards against the exhaustion of power in the batteries.
In the tape recorder having a conventional soft touch feature, when the play button is operated in a high-speed run mode so as to permit, for example, a cue and a review, an unusally great load is applied to the motor, accelerating the dissipation of battery power contrary to the goal of low power consumption.